Cisco launches cloud service for smart cities as game about hacking smart cities debuts

Source: VentureBeat on November 14, 2016 | Dean Takahashi

Here’s a weird intersection of fiction and real life. Cisco is announcing today a new cloud service to enable smart cities, just a day before Ubisoft launches its Watch Dogs 2 video game about hacking smart cities.

Cisco, of course, is perfectly serious, as it is launching its pay-as-you-go cloud service to enable cities to take action more effectively with data collected from sensors, cameras, and devices. It unveiled the initiative at the Smart City Expo World Congress 2016.

Cisco will showcase a cloud service that helps city leaders take action with their data in real time. The Cisco Smart+Connected Digital Platform helps cities benefit from the Internet of Things. Through the cloud service, data is securely collected from third-party sensors, street cameras, devices, and other connected systems and objects.

The San Jose, Calif.-based company said insights from collected real-time data help city departments and agencies make decisions to improve operational efficiencies, increase revenue, and reduce costs in areas that include street lighting, parking, traffic flow, environmental sensing, waste management, safety and security, and other city services.